WOTTON HUNDRED
��CAPEL
��same period belongs the western porch, so far as its walls are concerned. The doorway, with its pointed segmental head, and the square loophole in the northern wall, are of this date, but the remarkable roof is a survival of the original timber porch, the walls being built anew, probably because of the exposed situation. Each separate rafter is shaped as a bold horseshoe trefoil, as though built for a barge board. There is something very suggestive of Saracenic art in the whole look of this roof.
Of the original font, the Sussex marble base alone remains, being built in against the nave wall, west of the south porch. It shows the common arrangement of four angle shafts and a central drum, through which the drain was pierced, the latter making a large hole in the base. Doubtless the bowl was of square form, with perhaps a shallow arcade cut round the sides, according to the common type, of which so many examples remain in the home counties. 30 The modern font is made of serpentine, with some little carving and gilding.
The roofs of the chancel and nave are both ancient, and possibly coeval with the original build- ing. They are of trussed collar construction, with massive tie-beams and wall plates, the latter being of enormous scantling, and worked with double hollows in the chancel, exactly the same as at West Clandon chancel. The posts and beams of the timber bell- turret, and its carved braces, appear to have been partially renewed. The copings to the gables are modern.
In pre-Reformation wills an altar of our Lady and an image of the same are specified. This altar was probably on the south of the chancel arch on the nave side. An image of St. Lawrence (and probably an altar) stood in the chancel.
To the south wall of the chancel are affixed two monuments of some interest, the eastern being that of John Cowper and his wife, date I 590. It is com- posed of alabaster, with panels of black marble, on which is cut the inscription, the whole retaining the original colouring in a very perfect state. At the apex, within a circular disc, is a shield of Cowper impaling argent a fesse between three trefoils sable, which are the arms of Blackdenn. This shield is festooned with twisted red ribbons, and stands within a broken pediment, beneath which and an entablature bordered by black marble columns is a circular arch. Within this are the kneeling figures of John Cowper and his wife, facing each other at a fald-stool of graceful design, on which are prayer- books. The husband is represented in the scarlet robe of a serjeant-at-law, with a coif and a cloak over his shoulder. The wife's figure, kneeling on a cushion, in the ruff, stomacher, and fardingale of the period, is uncoloured probably an indication that the monument was put up during her widowhood, and that thus the effigy was not completed as to colouring by her descendants. The inscription in the two panels reads :
HEARE LYET BVRYED NEER TO THIS MONvl!NT IOHN COWPER LATE SERIEANT AT LAWE DECEASED WHO WAS BORNE AT HORLYE IN Y E COVNTY OF SVRREY IN AO DO : 1539. & AT HIS AGE OF 26 YEARS TORE TO WIEFE IVLYAN THE DAVGTER OF CVTHBERT BLACKDENN
��ESQUIOR AND THEN BEGAN TO STVDDY THE CoSTSN LAWE IN THE INNER TEMPLE AND THER c5lNVED Z\ YEARES WHICH TIME HE SPENT IN THIS MANNER . 8 YEARES VNDER THE BARR 8 YEARS AT THE BARR AND 8 YEARS AT THE BENCHE AND THEN WAS CALLED TO BE SERIEANT AT THE LAWE IN W CH DEGREE HE CONTYNVED ONE YEARE AND A HAVLFE AND THEN ENDE D HIS LIEFB THB 15 DAYE OF MARCHE A I59O, BEING THEN OF THE AGE OF 51 YEARS.
NEC PRIMVS NEC VLT1MVS MVLTI ANTECESSERVNT ET OMNES SEQVENTVR.
Below the inscription panels is an apron of scroll- work in alabaster.
The other monument, to the westward, is also finely designed, according to its period, and is in Sicilian marble, with Corinthian columns and pedi- ment, having at top a cartouche, bearing the family arms, and over it the crest of a black lion holding a silver tilting-spear. The inscription is as follows :
" Underneath lyeth the body of ROB T COWPER late of London, Gent, a younger son of RICHARD COWPER late of Temfle Elfont, Esq' (by SARAH Eldest daughter of w" KNIGHTLEY late of Kingston Esq r ) who was Son & Heir of s" RICHARD COWPER Kn', by Dame ELIZ. z d Daughter of s" THOMAS GRESHAM K" He Dyed y" 3 d of May 1720, In the 65"* year of his Age. To whose Memory this Monum' was Erected by his 3 Neices, the Daughters & Coheirs of RICHARD COWPER late of London Gent. Viz' Sarah the Eldest Daughter Wife of John Vincent of Hampstead in the County of Midd" Brewer, Mary y" 2 d Daughter, wife of Henry Ashton of Hackney in y same County of Midd. Gent, and Hannah the youngest Daughter wife of RICHARD DAWSON of Lambttk in the County of Surry Glass maker."
In addition to these monuments, Manning and Bray give the following :
' On a brass plate in capitals ' :
'HERE LYETH THE BODY OF DAME ELIZABETH, THE SECOND DAUGHTER OF SIR THOMAS GRESHAM OF LYMS- FEILD IN THE COUNTY OF SURREY, KNT., AND WIFE OF SIR RICHARD COWPER OF CAPEL IN THE SAID COUNTY, KNT. SHEE DECEASED THE XX OF AUGUST ANNO
DOMINI 1633.'
' On a brass plate, on a gravestone, in capitals ' :
' HERE LYETH INTERRED THE BODY OF SARAH COWPER, WIFE OF RICHARD COWPER, OF TEMPLE ELFANT IN SURREY, ESQ., ELDEST DAUGHTER OF WILLIAM KNIGHTLEY OF KINGSTONE-UPON-THAMES, ESQ., HAVING HAD ISSUE SEAVEN SONNES & ONE DAUGHTER, AND DECEASED THE 3 DAY OF NOVEMBER IN THE 38 YEAR OF HER AGE, ANNO DOMINI 1662.'
' On a black marble grave-stone in the chancel in capitals, is this inscription' :
' SARAH, DAUGHTER OF JOHN COWPER ESQ., AGED 9 MONTHS. DIED THE 22 AUGUST 1676.'
' On the floor ' : 'WILLIAM HEWITT, 1760.'
��o A at Beddington, Great Bookham, West Clandon, Frensham, Merstham, Mickleham, Scale, and Worplesdon in Surrey ; and many others in Kent, Sussex, Middlesex, &c.
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